


Blood Son

by sophene



Series: Gotham's Protector Universe [5]
Category: Batman (Comics), Robin (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bruce Wayne is Not Batman, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Gen, Good Parent Talia al Ghul, Selina Kyle is a Vigilante
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 06:41:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29113944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophene/pseuds/sophene
Summary: A mystery woman shows up in Bruce's bedroom. She has a surprise for him.Continuation of my AU where Bruce never became Batman and Selina Kyle became Gotham's protector in his place.
Relationships: Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne, Talia al Ghul/Bruce Wayne
Series: Gotham's Protector Universe [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2095662
Comments: 4
Kudos: 123





	Blood Son

One afternoon a woman appeared in Bruce’s bedroom. She was as devastatingly beautiful as Bruce remembered, and for a moment he was so shocked to see her that he was speechless.

“Do you remember me?” she asked.

She was holding something wrapped in a dark green and gold blanket. A baby, he realized.

“I do,” Bruce said.

“Good,” she said, and walked across the room toward him.

Bruce stayed very still, ignoring a strange impulse to back up. He’d felt that way when they first met, like there was something dangerous about her. He was still too shocked to react much when she handed him the baby. He simply took it from her and stood there cradling it in his arms.

“This is your blood son,” the woman said. “His name is Damian.”

Bruce, baffled, looked down at the child in his arms. The baby was asleep. He had black hair and brown skin just a shade lighter than his mother’s.

“What?” Bruce said. “How—”

“My father cannot discover that he exists. You must promise that you will not search for me or speak of me with those outside of your family. Do you understand?” she asked.

Bruce opened his mouth, trying to piece together words that would convey the depths of his shock and confusion.

“I don’t—you—”

“Do you promise?” she asked, interrupting him again.

“Yes,” Bruce said. “But—”

“Good. I will come see him when I am able. I must go now,” she said.

She walked out of his bedroom door, leaving a baffled Bruce standing alone in his bedroom with the child in his arms.

He looked down at the baby—Damian. Damian opened his eyes and gazed up at Bruce through slitted eyelids. A look of confusion twisted on Damian’s face when he saw Bruce instead of his mother, and he let out a nasally cry of dismay. He seemed impossibly small to Bruce. Perhaps he had been born premature? But Bruce wasn’t used to babies, so he had no idea. Dick had been three years old already when he came to live with Bruce, and all of Bruce’s other kids had been much older when he met them. Maybe Damian was a normal size for an infant.

It occurred to Bruce too late that he should’ve gone after Damian’s mother. He looked up from Damian’s face and went out into the hall to search for her.

"Wait," he said when he reached the hall. It was dark and empty. She was long gone.

* * *

Bruce took the baby down to the kitchen, thinking perhaps Alfred would be there.

Alfred wasn’t there, but Jason and Cassandra were. Jason was helping Cassandra with her homework at the kitchen table, and they looked over at the door when Bruce walked in. They did a double take when they noticed what he was holding.

“Is that a baby?” Jason asked, frowning.

“Yes,” Bruce said.

“Where did the baby come from?”

“Apparently he’s my son.”

Their eyebrows shot up. Jason said, “What?”

“Where is Alfred?” Bruce asked.

The kids ignored the question and got up, abandoning Cassandra’s homework to come over and get a better look. Months of painful growth spurts meant that Jason was now tall enough to be able to look over Bruce’s arms easily, but Cassandra had to stand on her tippy-toes and hang onto Bruce’s arm to be able to see Damian’s face.

Damian was still awake. His eyes wandered around, taking in both of their faces. Apparently he didn’t like what he saw, because his expression turned sour and he let out another whining cry. 

“He’s really your son?” Jason said. 

“Go get Alfred.”

“But—”

“Now, Jason.”

Jason whirled away from Bruce and ran out of the kitchen to go fetch him. As he left, Bruce went over to the kitchen table and sat down in the chair Jason had vacated. Cassandra followed him and stood over Bruce, staring down at Damian with a question in her eyes that Bruce didn’t know how to answer.

Bruce must’ve zoned out, because Jason seemed to come back with Alfred faster than it seemed possible. Bruce heard Alfred’s shoes clicking on the tile, and then he and Jason came around to face Bruce.

“Good heavens,” Alfred said when he saw the baby. “I thought Jason was playing a practical joke.”

Damian did not seem to like all of the attention. He inhaled a huge breath and squeezed his eyes shut as he began to cry in earnest. Cassandra put her hands over her ears, and Bruce, unsure of what to do, tried to maneuver Damian into a different position. This just made Damian cry harder and lash out at Bruce with a tiny fist, so Bruce stopped.

Jason got out his cell phone and took a picture.

“I—she said his name is Damian,” Bruce said.

“He certainly looks like you,” Alfred said. “A spitting image of you as a baby.”

Bruce shot him a look.

“Aside from the obvious differences,” Alfred clarified.

Bruce felt a swooping sensation in his stomach that felt a lot like fear. He said, “There will have to be a paternity test.”

“Of course,” Alfred said, nodding. “And what of his mother?”

“A long story,” Bruce said.

“One that I think we would all like to hear.”

Bruce glanced at the kids. Cassandra still had her hands covering her ears, and Jason was texting very fast.

“I met her in Paris last year when I was there working on something for Wayne Enterprises. I ran into her at a gala. She wouldn’t tell me her name. She kept saying she’d tell me when I deserved to know. When I woke up the next morning, she was gone. I never saw her again…until today, when she was somehow standing in my bedroom holding Damian and telling me that he is my son.”

“An intriguing mystery,” Alfred said.

“It gets more intriguing than that,” Bruce said, his tone dry. 

“Oh?”

“She said I can’t look for her. She told me no one outside of this family can know she exists. Something having to do with her father being dangerous,” Bruce said.

Alfred didn’t get a chance to react to this, because there was some noise outside in the hall. Dick and Tim walked into the kitchen and made a beeline for the group gathered around Bruce at the table.

“Jason said something about a baby?” Dick said, but fell silent when he looked at Bruce and saw that there was, in fact, a baby. His and Tim’s jaws dropped.

Damian was still crying, so Bruce tried patting him on the back.

“I thought Jason was messing with us,” Tim said.

“Where—?” Dick asked, but stopped short. “Who is the mother?”

Bruce told the story about meeting Damian’s mother all over again, ending with the part about how no one in the family could talk about her.

“If we can’t talk about her then what are people supposed to say when people ask?” Tim asked.

“Just say she wanted to remain anonymous,” Jason said.

“You think that’s going to work on Vicki Vale?” Tim said. He looked like he was about to say something else, but then his eyes widened. He looked to Bruce and said, “Wait, is Catwoman the mom?”

“If Catwoman was the mother I would have said so,” Bruce said.

Tim looked unconvinced. “You lie to us all the time about Catwoman.” 

“How could Catwoman be the mom? Her suit is skintight. You would’ve been able to tell she was pregnant right away,” Jason said.

“She could get someone to pose as Catwoman for her while she was pregnant,” Tim said.

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Boys, please,” Bruce said. The more they argued the louder Damian’s crying got, almost like the baby was competing with them for who could stress Bruce out the most.

Alfred nudged Cassandra out of the way and held out his hands.

“Alright,” the butler said to Bruce, “my turn. Hand the baby over.”

Bruce’s arms tightened around the baby, even though deep down the thought of handing him over to somebody else made him feel shamefully relieved.

“Why—I’m his father,” Bruce said to Alfred.

“That may be the case, but you’re a novice and I am not. Someone needs to get the baby quieted down and I think I have more hope of doing so than you,” Alfred said. “No offense intended, Master Bruce.”

Bruce gave him an exasperated look, but let him take Damian.

Alfred fixed the green and gold blanket as he tucked Damian into the safety of his arms. The kids were all quiet for once, looking between Alfred and Bruce as Damian went on crying. Oddly, the sound still filled Bruce with distress even though he wasn’t the one holding him anymore. It was almost like it was worse now that Bruce wasn’t holding him.

It all seemed to hit Bruce then. He had a baby now. Even if the baby turned out to not be his, it wasn’t like he knew how to find Damian’s mother. And if it was really dangerous to look for her…

“Babies need things. Things we don’t have,” Bruce said. “Milk. Blankets. Clothes. Diapers. A crib—”

Alfred shot Bruce an amused look and said, “It is fortunate that you can afford all of those things.”

“How are we supposed to get a crib to the Manor without anyone noticing or seeing it?” Bruce asked. "This can't get out yet, not until I think about what to tell people. Tim is right. The Vicki Vales of the world aren't going to drop it just because I say the mother wanted her privacy." 

Alfred was still unruffled. “There's no need to buy a crib, since we have one already.”

“No we don’t,” Bruce said, glancing at Dick. “Dick was already three when he came to live here. He was old enough to sleep in a bed.”

“We have _your_ crib, Master Bruce. It’s up in the attic somewhere. I can find it later, after I call Leslie,” Alfred said. 

“Call Leslie?”

“Someone will need to come check on the baby, and she is the only one who can be trusted to do so and keep it to herself,” Alfred said.

Of course, Bruce thought. He should’ve been the one to think of that. Of course a doctor should come by to check on Damian. What could Damian’s mother have been thinking? She knew who Bruce was. Her situation must’ve been really bad if she thought Damian was better off with Bruce than he was with her.

“There, there,” Alfred said, speaking soothingly to the baby. “You’ve had a big day, haven’t you? So many new faces.”

“It’s so loud,” Tim complained.

“ _He_ is loud,” Bruce said. “His name is Damian.”

“I hope _he_ isn’t going to be in one of the rooms next to me,” Tim muttered under his breath.

“Don’t be silly, Master Timothy. Obviously the baby should stay in Bruce’s room for now,” Alfred said.

Alfred didn’t look at Bruce after he said this, but the kids did, and Bruce could only imagine what his expression looked like. He was glad that Alfred was so calm, because he definitely didn’t feel calm at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Damian is a lot younger in this than the other kids than he really is in canon, but I couldn't resist the idea of Bruce with little baby Damian.


End file.
